AM students recycle 12,000 bottles and cans - Laudato Si

During the 2025-2026 school year, the Albertus Magnus High School community made a concerted effort to recycle plastic water and soda bottles and aluminum cans. We placed three large cardboard boxes in the cafeteria to collect bottles and cans. Volunteers sorted the bottles and cans each afternoon. Sr. Diane brought the ones containing the 5-cent label to Bottle Depot to be redeemed for cash. Our school community’s effort to recycle paid off! We earned $600 for recycling 12,000 bottles and cans. The St. Vincent de Paul Food Pantry, located on the grounds of St. Aedan Parish, received $500 throughout the school year. Deacon Maher, husband of Math Department Chair Mrs. Maher, used the money to assist families who found it difficult to pay their monthly electric bill or fill their gas tanks. With the other $100, we purchased food for a local family who is connected to a ministry sponsored by the Dominican Sisters of Sparkill.

 

The recycling effort was an action step the Albertus Magnus High School community took to respond to Pope Francis’ 2015 encyclical Laudato Si: On Care for Our Common Home which focuses on environmental issues and the moral responsibility of human beings toward creation. The encyclical links the Care of Earth with the Care of the Poor. Those who participated in the recycling efforts at our school did just that – we kept plastic bottles and aluminum cans out of the landfills and the money earned from recycling the bottles and cans helped people suffering financial hardship.